Kostverlorenvaart

  Taking off the two classic seals and one prototype seal: Cleaning the shaft / inner group to remove any grease residue: Warming up the new seals and the slip-on tool: Fitting the new seals:

 

 https://londiniumespresso.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=313&search=seal    Londinium writes: You are purchasing ONE LONDINIUM piston seal (there are three of these seals on the piston) This item will ship from New Zealand by post and is therefore likely to take 4 weeks to arrive to most customers The seals are only 8mm thick so we hope to send them in an envelope These seals have been developed by LONDINIUM in New Zealand to run with very low friction without grease and provide an extended service life for the seal and also the shower screen, and to eliminate a possible source of channelling (a shower screen partially blocked with silicone grease) These seals are not made from Viton, nor are they made from silicone, but the material is certified for use in potable water at temperatures and pressures greater than what our machines can impose on the seals Given you are moving to a no grease seal i recommend that you replace all three...

A neighbour living around the corner has a little 'garden' on the pavement outside his house and I noticed tiny floating plants he had there as well: The owner allowed me to bring a few home with me. I made a video to find out the plants' names and they are both Salvinia (Thankyou Charles Buddendorf!):

 

In March I was able to find these vintage containers, one of which was still full of the burnt sugar of the recipe that was used since 1867 to create the taste of 'coffee'. https://www.koninklijkebuisman.nl/ons-verhaal The plan is to test, with Jan and Tije, if this stuff could 'improve' the taste of some espresso. Sadly, since March I have carefully placed the one jar of the stuff in a place that I can't remember. Good thing that I spotted a present day production of it that was on sale for 50 cents: So unless I misplace it too we will someday soon be able to do the testing.

Volvic is said to be very good water for espresso machines, causing little or no scaling and facilitating great taste in espresso. In The Netherlands though, Volvic is rarely found in shops. I found a source now: https://www.lyreco.com/webshop/NLNL/welcome?lc=NLNL There I ordered two 8L bottles. The water kettle that I also use didn't scale up when using Volvic and the espresso tastes wonderful. I can't compare it side by side with the water from my inline BWT filter as I have just the one espresso machine. The espresso tasted wonderful before the Volvic water was delivered ;-) here in Amsterdam we can look up the recent analysis of our tap water here: https://www.waternet.nl/service-en-contact/drinkwater/waterkwaliteit/ and also request the most recent one on that page. I will add this quarter's number: There's also a booklet about water quality by the Specialty Coffee Association, see below. I just sent it and the one next to it to a fellow coffee enthousiast: